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re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

I agree about the spellings of the letters and for it to be truly international, it would have to use the phonetic symbols.

Having said that, I can't decipher the phonetic symbols and none of my students use them. Consequently, here in Spain, my students and I write pronunciations of words/letters which make sense to them, using Spanish pronunciation. I realise that would be no use for a student from another country!

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

Originally Posted by emsr2d2

I agree about the spellings of the letters and for it to be truly international, it would have to use the phonetic symbols.

Having said that, I can't decipher the phonetic symbols and none of my students use them. Consequently, here in Spain, my students and I write pronunciations of words/letters which make sense to them, using Spanish pronunciation. I realise that would be no use for a student from another country!

Most of the letters are spelled in IPA as they would be in Spanish anyhow. eɪ, bi, si,di, i ...
The only problems you're likely to have are:g, h, j, o, q, u, w, y.g /ʤi/

h /eɪʧ/

j /ʤeɪ/

o /əʊ/oʊ/

q /kju/

u /ju/

w /dʌbl ju/y /waɪ /Anyhow, it would take you only an hour or two to master the consonants necessary for English, and perhaps another two hours for the vowels and diphthongs. It looks more complicated than it actually is. (Except for when you're trying to type them nicely on this blessèd software!)

re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

Hello guys and thanks for your advice.
I made some new changes, I hope you like them.

Version 1.4
- corrected the O mistake
- removed all +- symbols in order to make it clearer
- fixed all phonetics
- changed the order of some examples
- added some advice sentences
- reduced font size of the version history

Maybe this thread could be moved to the FAQ section: "A or an?" some day

I think I will also try to explain things like:A European. - An Emergency.A house. - An hour.A one-winged angel. - An oil rig.A uniform - An unpleasant moment.

Re: Nightmare85's "a/an alphabet"

mmasny, you're right, but I did not include it since it might have confused members.
The one site, where I took my information from, says:
Sometimes pronounced [heɪtʃ] in Irish and Australian English.

There are some exceptions anyway.Historic can be pronounced both [historic] and [istoric], which would mean both a and an can be right - probably depending on the location/place (where you are).

By the way, I updated the main thread some hours ago.Version 1.5
- added a general rule (when to use aor an)- removed a redundand intro sentence- moved and extended the "ask yourself"-sentence- fixed some minor comma mistakes